A small plane came within less than 300 feet of a commercial jetliner taking off from San Francisco International Airport over the weekend, federal officials said today.

A United Airlines Boeing 777 with 251 passengers on board, bound for Beijing, took off at 11:15 a.m. Saturday and had just been cleared to climb to 3,000 feet when the near-collision happened, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The jet was at 1,100 feet when an air traffic controller warned the crew to be on the lookout for a small plane, the safety board said. Immediately afterward, the jet's automated traffic collision avoidance system issued an audible alert of, "Traffic traffic."That's when the pilot and first officer saw a light high-wing Aeronca 11AC making a hard left turn to the right of the airliner, the safety board said. The first officer promptly leveled off the jet, and both crew members watched as the Aeronca passed 200 to 300 feet over the airliner, the safety board said.

No. It is easy to isolate the conversation since it's on two different channels. Just open your volume control and put the Wave balance control either to the right or the left depending on what you want to hear.

The media pisses me off. They got this all wrong. Everything was done by the book. The C172 reported the B777 in sight and was told to "maintain visual separation and pass behind that aircraft." The controller then immediately went to the B777, called the C172 traffic, and notified them that the aircraft was maintaining visual separation from them. This is textbook visual separation. It happens every day at every airport in the world. Look at the news' subtitles of the controller-pilot transmission. It's hilarious. If you're going to hype up a story and try to pin it on the controller, at least have the correct audio transmission.

Example from FOX News:

"Just hang to your right, tag insight head for 1500 and maintaining those separation" HAHAHAHA

how about....

"Just ahead and to your right, has you in sight, Cessna, 1500', they're maintaining visual separation"

No. It is easy to isolate the conversation since it's on two different channels. Just open your volume control and put the Wave balance control either to the right or the left depending on what you want to hear.

Ah yeah, I'm on OSX and don't think I have an option, but I did put it into audacity later in the evening and found it out : ) Thought thats what was going on but wasn't sure. Thanks again!

The media pisses me off. They got this all wrong. Everything was done by the book. The C172 reported the B777 in sight and was told to "maintain visual separation and pass behind that aircraft." The controller then immediately went to the B777, called the C172 traffic, and notified them that the aircraft was maintaining visual separation from them. This is textbook visual separation. It happens every day at every airport in the world. Look at the news' subtitles of the controller-pilot transmission. It's hilarious. If you're going to hype up a story and try to pin it on the controller, at least have the correct audio transmission.

Example from FOX News:

"Just hang to your right, tag insight head for 1500 and maintaining those separation" HAHAHAHA

how about....

"Just ahead and to your right, has you in sight, Cessna, 1500', they're maintaining visual separation"

I agree, I hate our media. No sense of professionalism at all. What's funny is they say that about the rest of us.

The media pisses me off. They got this all wrong. Everything was done by the book. The C172 reported the B777 in sight and was told to "maintain visual separation and pass behind that aircraft." The controller then immediately went to the B777, called the C172 traffic, and notified them that the aircraft was maintaining visual separation from them. This is textbook visual separation. It happens every day at every airport in the world. Look at the news' subtitles of the controller-pilot transmission. It's hilarious. If you're going to hype up a story and try to pin it on the controller, at least have the correct audio transmission.

Example from FOX News:

"Just hang to your right, tag insight head for 1500 and maintaining those separation" HAHAHAHA

how about....

"Just ahead and to your right, has you in sight, Cessna, 1500', they're maintaining visual separation"

That was ridiculous. It didn't even make sense. They also called TCAS "t-test" and quoted a takeoff clearance as "flight 6888, wings 090 at...". Isn't there someone on their staff that has a clue about aviation that can proofread these transcripts? It's just embarrasing.

That was ridiculous. It didn't even make sense. They also called TCAS "t-test" and quoted a takeoff clearance as "flight 6888, wings 090 at...". Isn't there someone on their staff that has a clue about aviation that can proofread these transcripts? It's just embarrasing.

They probably used Youtube's new transcription services.
(click the CC next to the volume button)

Did I hear this right? In the first part of the tape, I hear tower saying something like “…onca, traffic off the departure end, climbing out of 500, heavy triple 7”. The GA responds with something, presumably its call sign, followed by “traffic IS in sight”. Tower: “Maintain visual separation, pass behind that aircraft”. Tower then tried to tell UA that the GA had them in sight and would pass behind. But by the time tower spoke to UA, immediately after talking to the GA, all hell had already broken loose. The Cessna (not Aeronca) was banking hard left (accoprding to AvHerald) and the UA had gotten a "strong TCAS", responded to it, and was trying to contact tower. In fact UA and tower stepped on each other.

I can imagine that the UA crew had higher priorities immediately after wheels up then scanning their TCAS displays for possible conflicting traffic, and didn't have time for tower’s instruction to the Cessna to even register on them before they heard their TCAS callout. Seems also like the Cessna was way way out of position, given that it was out over the bay when (as we hear later) their instruction was to “stay west of Hiway 101”. So how did tower let the Cessna get so far off course, and how could the Cessna pilot not realize where he was? “Visual separation” implies to me VFR, and to be out over the bay in the 28 departure track instead of “west of 101”….? And did the Cessna pilot really respond calmly “traffic IS in sight” when he was at that moment banking hard left apparently trying to get the hell out of the way of the 77?

Oh well, I’m not a pilot, just an interested bystander, so any comments would be appreciated.

Incidentally, I really loved the FOX news quote. Just further confirmation that their news reports rarely bear any relation to actual facts.

The 777 wasn't over the bay (or near it) so presumably the Cessna wasn't either. No indication he wasn't west of 101 like he was supposed to be.

It seems everybody followed the letter of the rules-- the Cessna did pass behind the 777, and he didn't hit him, so he did maintain visual separation. You might hope he would take care to avoid setting off their TCAS, but apparently that's not actually a requirement?

The 777 wasn't over the bay (or near it) so presumably the Cessna wasn't either. No indication he wasn't west of 101 like he was supposed to be.

It seems everybody followed the letter of the rules-- the Cessna did pass behind the 777, and he didn't hit him, so he did maintain visual separation. You might hope he would take care to avoid setting off their TCAS, but apparently that's not actually a requirement?

Not sure what else he could have done. It would have been hard for him to turn right (make a 270) to pass behind and still keep the 777 in sight thus "maintaining visual separation".

Of course the media sensationalized the story. Thats what they do. I worked in the news biz for 10 years... its just what they do. But I'm also a pilot...

It sounded like the 777 was departing 28 so heading to the west, so even if the GA aircraft was west of the 101 (as instructed), he still could have easily been in the departure path of the Heavy. And the Heavy had instructions for runway heading after takeoff I believe. Of course we don't know all the facts, but from my perspective, the error would have been on the controller in clearing the 777 for takeoff as a GA was about to pass in-front of the business end of an active runway at an altitude that the 777 would quickly be climbing through after takeoff.

A TCAS warning that soon after takeoff has got to be a scary thing to deal with. Not only do you already have your hands full with getting the plane off the ground and cleaned up, but the pitch attitude is relatively high and forward visibility isn't great. Its hard to see a little GA out there at that phase of flight.

The Cessna was way too close and although both pilots did a great job of taking evasive action, the controller should have never let them get into that situation. Had they collided the loss of life could have been very great. And even given the Cessna avoided the collision, passing behind a Heavy Jet on takeoff is the last place you want to be in a light aircraft. The wake turbulence coming off a 777 on takeoff is easily enough to slam a single engine airplane to the ground.